NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways on Sunday cancelled the tenders of 44 sets of Vande Bharat Trains and invited fresh tenders as per the revised public procurement in order to maintain complete transparency.
As per the statement, earlier on Friday, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai had cancelled the older tender, which was floated on December 22, 2019, and opened on July 10, 2020. Reports had said that the decision to issue the new tenders was taken months after a Chinese joint venture company had emerged as the only foreign bidder for the global tender floated for manufacturing 44 rakes of the Vande Bharat Trains.
"While evaluating the technical bids of the tenders, the Tender Committee had noticed that some of the details of the financial offers had been revealed in the first packet, which was not acceptable. The new guidelines of public procurement will be strictly followed and will prefer the 'Make in India' initiative. To maintain the complete transparency, the Committee has recommended to cancel the tender and invite fresh tenders" the statement added quoted Vinod Kumar, Chairman of the Railway Board (CRB).
It further quoted the CRB saying, "The Railway is trying to manufacture this project as early as possible. But, due to some technical issues, this project has been delayed. In a fresh tenders timeline for manufacturing of Train Sets will be compressed," adding that there would be an increase in indigenous content from the present level of 50 per cent to a higher level as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
It further said that fresh tenders would be invited within a week and would have the provisions to manufacture Vande Bharat Train Set at all the three Production Units of Indian Railways, ICF, MCF & RCF," it added.